Tower Bridge Advisors Has $21.92 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Tower Bridge Advisors reduced its stake in Visa by 3.6% during the first quarter, owning 62,546 shares valued at approximately $21.92 million, making it the firm's 7th largest position.
• Visa's recent quarterly earnings report showed earnings per share of $2.98, beating expectations, with revenue of $10.17 billion, reflecting a 14.3% increase from the previous year.
• Institutional investors own 82.15% of Visa's stock, with several hedge funds increasing their positions in the fourth quarter, while insider sales totaled over $36 million in the last three months.

Tower Bridge Advisors reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 62,546 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 2,341 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 2.4% of Tower Bridge Advisors' investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Tower Bridge Advisors' holdings in Visa were worth $21,920,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 5.7% during the first quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 81 shares during the period. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $306,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $57,727,000 after acquiring an additional 30,185 shares during the last quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $811,000 after acquiring an additional 63 shares during the period. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 610,517 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $192,948,000 after acquiring an additional 43,546 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price target (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total value of $17,099,180.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,772,810. This represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 89,913 shares of company stock valued at $32,902,432 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V traded down $6.66 on Friday, hitting $338.81. The stock had a trading volume of 8,655,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,632,218. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $355.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $346.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $254.51 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a market capitalization of $625.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.42 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Visa Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.